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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 5:4 - 5:4
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(Heb.: 5:5-7) The basing of the prayer on God's holiness. The verbal adjective חָפֵץ (coming from the primitive signification of adhering firmly which is still preserved in Arab. chfd, fut. i.) is in the sing. always (Psa 34:13; Psa 35:27) joined with the accusative. רָע is conceived as a person, for although גּוּר may have a material object, it cannot well have a material subject. יְגֻרְךָ is used for brevity of expression instead of יָגוּר עִמְּךָ (Ges. §121, 4). The verb גּוּר (to turn in, to take up one's abode with or near any one) frequently has an accusative object, Psa 120:5, Jdg 5:17, and Isa 33:14 according to which the light of the divine holiness is to sinners a consuming fire, which they cannot endure. Now there follow specific designations of the wicked. הֽולֲלִים part. Kal = hōlalim, or even Poal = hôlalim (= מְהֽולֲלִים),
(Note: On the rule, according to which here, as in שֹֽׁורֲרַי Psa 5:9 and the like, a simple Shebâ mobile goes over into Chateph pathach with Gaja preceding it, vid., the observations on giving a faithful representation of the O.T. text according to the Masora in the Luther Zeitschr. 1863. S. 411. The Babylonian Ben-Naphtali (about 940) prefers the simple Shebâ in such cases, as also in others; Ben-Asher of the school of Tiberias, whom the Masora follows, and whom consequently our Masoretic text ought to follow, prefers the Chateph, vid., Psalter ii. 460-467.)
are the foolish, and more especially foolish boasters; the primary notion of the verb is not that of being hollow, but that of sounding, then of loud boisterous, non-sensical behaviour. Of such it is said, that they are not able to maintain their position when they become manifest before the eye of God (לְנֶגֶד as in Psa 101:7 manifest before any one, from נָגַד to come forward, be visible far off, be distinctly visible). פֹֽעֲלֵי אָוֶן are those who work (οἱ ἐργαζόμενοι Mat 7:23) iniquity; אָוֶן breath (ἄνεμος) is sometimes trouble, in connection with which one pants, sometimes wickedness, in which there is not even a trace of any thing noble, true, or pure. Such men Jahve hates; for if He did not hate evil (Psa 11:5), His love would not be a holy love. In דֹּבְרֵי כָזַב, דֹּבְרֵי is the usual form in combination when the plur. is used, instead of מְדַבְּרֵי. It is the same in Psa 58:4. The style of expression is also Davidic in other respects, viz., אִישׁ דָּמִים וּמִרְמָה as in Ps 55:24, and אִבֵּד as in Psa 9:6, cf. Psa 21:11. תִּעֵב (in Amos, Amo 6:8 תֵּאֵב) appears to be a secondary formation from עוּב, like תָּאַב to desire, from אָבָה, and therefore to be of a cognate root with the Aram. עַיֵּב to despise, treat with indignity, and the Arabic ‛aib a stain (cf. on Lam 2:1). The fact that, as Hengstenberg has observed, wickedness and the wicked are described in a sevenfold manner is perhaps merely accidental.